The present invention relates to an electronic musical instrument of the type generating tones by a digital procedure and, more particularly, to an electronic musical instrument capable of informing the user of a sound level or a tempo of an automatic accompaniment to be set by changing the pitch of a click to be generated by a tone generating section thereof or changing the sound levels coming out of a left and a right loudspeakers.
An electronic musical instrument of the type described has a sound level selector and a tempo selector each being implemented with a switch device. The sound level selector and tempo selector are operable to select a particular sound level and, when an automatic accompaniment is desired, a particular tempo therefor. The sound level and tempo selected by the user are displayed by LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) or similar indicators, so that the user or player may recognize them immediately. However, many of popular-priced instruments are not provided with such indicators and, therefore, do not allow the user to see the sound level or the tempo by eyes. The instrument without the indicators simply produces a click from a tone generating section thereof as an answer to the operation of the sound level selector or that of the tempo selector. Specifically, the switch device constituting the sound level selector, for example, has two switches, i.e., an UP switch and a DOWN switch for turning the sound level up or down, as desired. Every time either one of the UP and DOWN switches is pressed by the user, the sound level is changed step by step in the associated direction. More specifically, every time one of the two switches is turned on, a tone having a fixed pitch and a fixed sound level is produced as a click. The user, therefore, cannot see the instantaneous sound level by hearing the click whose pitch and sound level are fixed, although the click may inform the user of the change of sound level by one step. This is also true with the tempo selector, i.e., the tempo selector cannot inform the user of the instantaneous tempo due to the click having a fixed pitch and a fixed sound level.
The instrument lacking the indicators as stated above has another drawback, as follows. When the user desires to play a certain program on the instrument by selecting a desired sound level and a desired tempo, the user who does not know the sound level or the tempo currently set has to start an automatic accompaniment and, while listening to it, operate the sound level selector and tempo selector. This procedure is not only time-consuming but also inaccurate since the number of times that the click is produced is the only information indicative of a sound level or a tempo.